I think I have a way of approaching this issue, that builds on an insight from last week's forum. The logic goes something like this:
1) Most people don't think; I would even say that conscious thought is the exception.
2) When you don't think, you react with whatever association patterns you happen to have in your mind, with a lot of them being habitual, and with a lot of them not being correlated with each other. Once an association pattern becomes habitual it largely drops out of awareness.
3) Seeing context, overall pattern, inter-relations, contradictions and consequences, are all functions of thinking.
4) Thinking takes time and conscious effort. If you don't take the time, you don't think, you associate and react. The busier you are, the less likely you are to be able to think.
5) Most people don't think.
If you think of some of those illogical actions you described (diabetes <==> insulin, carbs bad <==> fat bad) as being more like habitual stimulus-response associations (ring bell <==> salivate) than like conscious thought - they still don't make any sense, but they are at least more explainable. Seeing implications of research takes conscious thinking.
While I'm writing this I have an image of a friend of mine who always uses only artificial sweetener in coffee (coffee plus sugar bad), and really likes coffee with a frosted donut.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2024-02-05 02:37 pm (UTC)1) Most people don't think; I would even say that conscious thought is the exception.
2) When you don't think, you react with whatever association patterns you happen to have in your mind, with a lot of them being habitual, and with a lot of them not being correlated with each other. Once an association pattern becomes habitual it largely drops out of awareness.
3) Seeing context, overall pattern, inter-relations, contradictions and consequences, are all functions of thinking.
4) Thinking takes time and conscious effort. If you don't take the time, you don't think, you associate and react. The busier you are, the less likely you are to be able to think.
5) Most people don't think.
If you think of some of those illogical actions you described (diabetes <==> insulin, carbs bad <==> fat bad) as being more like habitual stimulus-response associations (ring bell <==> salivate) than like conscious thought - they still don't make any sense, but they are at least more explainable. Seeing implications of research takes conscious thinking.
While I'm writing this I have an image of a friend of mine who always uses only artificial sweetener in coffee (coffee plus sugar bad), and really likes coffee with a frosted donut.